Authorities issued arrest warrants this week for the parents of a Grain Valley infant who lost seven fingers to a pet ferret in January.

Ryan and Carrie Waldo failed to appear for pre-trial conferences last Friday at the Jackson County Courthouse Annex in Independence, which prompted the warrants to be issued.

“We think they are in Indiana,” said Aaron Ambrose, Grain Valley police chief. “That’s where their family is from. Hopefully we can locate them.”

Dan Miller, the lawyer representing the parents, described the matter as a communication problem.

“They have not flown the coop,” he said. “They did not willfully disobey the court. I hope to get the matter back before the court and rectify the problem.”

Authorities responded to the couple’s Grain Valley home Jan. 10 after a 911 call. They found that the family’s 4-month-old child had only two thumbs and part of a pinkie finger remaining as digits.

Carrie Waldo told police that she had fallen asleep in the room where the child was asleep in his infant rocker, and that her husband was asleep in a nearby room.

In June, prosecutors charged Ryan and Carrie Waldo with first-degree child endangerment. Authorities had subpoenaed cell phone records to track the parents the night their child was injured. The records indicated that both phones “were not present in the area of their residence when the victim was injured by the ferret,” according to court records.

GPS location documents indicated that the phones were calling and texting each other in several different locations when the ferret was attacking the child. However, both phones were in the area of the residence when the 911 call was made, according to court documents.